Pornography and Sexist Attitudes Among Heterosexuals

Using a probability-based sample of young Danish adults and a randomized experimental design, this study investigated effects of past pornography consumption, experimental exposure to nonviolent pornography, perceived realism of pornography, and personality (i.e.,agreeableness)onsexistattitudes(i.e.,attitudestowardwomen,hostileandbenevolent sexism). Further, sexual arousal mediation was assessed. Results showed that, among men, anincreasedpastpornographyconsumptionwassignificantlyassociatedwithlessegalitarian attitudes toward women and more hostile sexism. Further, lower agreeableness was found to significantly predict higher sexist attitudes. Significant effects of experimental exposure to pornography were found for hostile sexism among low in agreeableness participants and for benevolent sexism among women. These experimental exposure effects were found to be mediated by sexual arousal. doi:10.1111/jcom.12037 In the controversy about effects of pornography, attitudes have long held a central role, with concerns about exposure to such materials increasing sexist and related attitudes.Givenconsistentcross-culturalfindingsofhighprevalenceratesofpornography consumption among the general population (Hald, Seaman & Linz, 2012), investigating the extent to which pornography consumption may adversely affect sexistattitudesishighlyimportantinordertoqualifythedebateoneffectsofpornography and efforts being made to effectively reduce such or related attitudes. This study was specifically designed to investigate effects of exposure to pornography on sexism as it is present in current society (see also Glick & Fiske, 1996) and elucidate some of the mechanisms by which pornography may influence some individuals, thereby rectifying important shortcomings of available research in the area. In this introduction, we begin by presenting a definition of sexism and reviewing core relevant research on effects of pornography on sexist attitudes (for a more

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